Former President Barack Obama got in a final dig at his successor, on Friday, as he said goodbye to his staff and the nation.
This was right after President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, where he delivered an inaugural speech that broke with the tradition of non-partisanship by taking a swipe at the Washington establishment, represented by majority of the dignitaries at the occasion.
Most commentators have observed that Trump’s speech, at the ceremony held in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, has the potential to deepen divisions within the country rather than heal it.
Just moments before boarding the same airplane that served him as Air Force One, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Friday, Obama told former staffers that their democracy doesn’t end with the beginning of the new administration.
“This is just a, this is just a, little pit stop. This is, uh, this is not a period, this is a comma, in the continuing story of building America,” he said to laughter, searching for the appropriate words.
The Obamas are off to California on Special Air Mission 28000, the military aircraft known as Air Force One when the president is riding on it.
They pulled away from Joint Base Andrews, located just outside of Washington, Friday afternoon as the new president and his wife attended a congressional luncheon.
Awaiting them at Andrews were 1,800, mostly former members Obama administration, including Denis McDonough, Obama’s former chief of staff; Valerie Jarrett, a family friend and senior adviser in his administration; Susan Rice, his national security adviser; Neil Eggleston, his White House lawyer; Eric Holder, his first attorney general; Gina McCarthy, the former EPA administrator; Jeff Zients, Obama’s National Economic Council head; Jen Psaki, the departing White House communications director; and Josh Earnest, his final spokesman, accompanied by his two-year-old son.
“This has never been about us. It has always been about you,” Obama told his staff in the farewell address. “And all the amazing things that happened over these 10 years are really just a testament to you.”
His wife, Michelle, became teary-eyed as her husband delivered his parting message to the country and to the people that diligently worked to enact his agenda.
The two-term president, who was constitutionally mandated to vacate office at 12pm, on Friday, said his supporters didn’t flock to his candidacy for higher office in 2007 because of “blind optimism. It wasn’t naivety. It wasn’t willful ignorance to all the challenges that America faces. It was hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty.
“You proved the power of hope. And throughout this process, Michelle and I, we’ve just been your front men and women. We have been the face, sometimes the voice out front on the TV screen and the microphone. But this has never been about us”.
Obama Fires Parting Shot at Trump, Says He’s ‘a Comma in the Continuing Story of Building America’
ByEditor
Jan 21, 2017
President Trump and his wife seeing off the Obamas after the ceremony